In what legal experts called a rarity for the criminal justice system, George Floyd played a major role in the trial of the man prosecutors allege killed him. Jurors saw and heard Floyd up close, in multiple videos, begging for his life up until his final breath.
Dr. Ziv Cohen, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Cornell University, said that the videos the panel saw of Floyd's final moments were "powerful" evidence for the prosecution.
"That video is the star of this trial. It's the star witness of this trial. It's the biggest piece of evidence in this trial," Cohen told ABC News prior to the verdict being announced.
In bystander video taken from just feet away from Floyd and the officers who were on top of him during the May 25, 2020, arrest, and in even closer police body camera videos, jurors heard Floyd not just begging for his life but talking about his deceased mother, children and predicting his own demise.
"They gonna kill me. They gonna kill me, man," Floyd is heard saying in the now-famous video taken by a then-17-year-old high school student, Darnella Frazier.
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